Torghatten

A hole in his hat was the price a king paid for saving several maidens in trouble

Rising 367 feet vertically from the sea at Brønnøysundet, between Brønnøysund and Rørvik, is Torghatten. The mountain, with its distinctive hole right through it, is said to be the Brønnøy King’s hat. It plays a heroic role in the Nordland fairy tale about the trolls who froze to stone and became the mountains along the Nordland coast. Early one morning, according to the legend, Lekamøya and her seven sisters were fleeing from Vågekallen, who was desperate to capture a wife. The king heard them and came to the rescue of the young maidens. But then Hestmannen, who had been awakened by the noise, got up and shot an arrow towards the maidens. The king threw his hat toward the maidens to protect them. At the moment the arrow pierced the hat, the sun appeared and its rays turned the trolls – as well as the Brønnøy King’s pierced hat – into stone.

There is another, more rational explanation for the 98-feet-high, 82-feet-wide and 525-feet-deep hole in Torghatten. The mountain may have been pushed upward after a period at a lower level, during which the sea gradually wore a hole through its layers of rock.